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How to find your passion after you retire

A recent survey showed that in their ideal retirement, the majority of pre-retirees (72%) would like to work.

Fred Weinberg, 81, of New York City has had a half-dozen careers since he retired at age 55 after working for almost three decades as a New York state parole officer who tracked down missing parolees.(Photo: Brian Harkin for USA TODAY)

Many people want to continue working well beyond the traditional retirement age, and to do that they're finding new creative ways to stay employed in not just one new career, but two, three or more careers.

Take Fred Weinberg of New York City who retired at age 55 after working for almost three decades as a New York State parole officer who tracked down missing parolees.

Since then, Weinberg, now 81, has had a half-dozen different careers. He has been a detective investigator for a district attorney's office and a New York City tour guide. He worked at a drug crisis program and acted as a patient advocate for low-income, older people in a hospital. He now volunteers one day a week in a pediatric outpatient unit at hospital, something that's "a whole new emotional experience," he says.

He just finished self-publishing his first book, Social Workers with Guns, and he's working on his second book. Plus, he's searching for a new job on Reserveinc.org.

Weinberg, who has a college degree in social work and graduated from the police academy and FBI National Academy, says he would characterize himself as a risk taker. "When I need to make a change, I do it. I try to stay motivated in what I'm doing. I'm resourceful."

A recent survey showed that the majority of pre-retirees (72%) would like to keep working in retirement.

About half (47%) of current retirees either are working, have worked or plan to work in retirement, and 58% of working retirees say retirement was an opportunity to transition to a different type of work, according to the survey, sponsored by Merrill Lynch in partnership with Age Wave, a research think-tank on aging issues.

But how do you figure out what to do in retirement for your second, third or fourth act?

"Some retirees try something, go down that path for a while and then retrench and find something else they'd rather do," says Marci Alboher, a vice president at Encore.org and author of The Encore Career Handbook and One Person/Multiple Careers.

The beauty of later life transitions is that people can "leverage their life's experience and skills to fix the world, or their corner of it, in some way. As you age, you realize you only have so much time left" so if you try something and it doesn't work out, it's important to admit that and move on to the next thing, she says.

Alboher has talked to hundreds of people who have found their way to work with social impact later in life, and she says that those who really make a difference share some common characteristics: the ability to see problems that need fixing, persistence in finding opportunities or crafting new ones, and a willingness to learn and try new things.

Some people spend their lives in jobs they don't find deeply satisfying because "financial commitments and family obligations often preclude a career change," says Joe Burgo, a psychologist in Chapel Hill, N.C., and author of Why Do I Do That? Retirement gives people a chance to finally pursue their passions, he says.

His advice: Don't do anything only because you think you ought to do it or because someone else expects it of you. "Make sure you wake up every day looking forward to your new job or find something else to do. Life is far too short to spend these remaining precious years merely fulfilling a sense of obligation."

Paul Irving, author of The Upside of Aging, says, "We encourage people to continue to work if they can, because work is not only good for your wealth, it's also good for your health."

Careers and industries change very quickly, and it's important to help people adapt. "We should enable lifelong learning and skills development, so that people can apply those learnings in new work environments as they age," says Irving, president of the Milken Institute, a non-partisan think tank dedicated to improving public health and aging.

John Schoolmeester, 80, of Naples, Fla., did just that. With a degree in electrical engineering, Schoolmeester spent most of his career as a radar design engineer and sales and marketing expert for the defense industry. He also had a real estate license and built two of his own homes in Fairfax, Va.

When he was in his early 60s, he retired from his engineering career and moved to Florida. He tried selling real estate for a while but found it "too cut throat," so he became a home inspector. "I was finding problems in homes people wanted to buy, and everybody, said, 'Who is going to fix that for me, and how much is it going to cost?'"

So Schoolmeester opened his own handyman business. "I find it very satisfying. Homeowners are so happy when I can solve their problem for a reasonable amount of money."

Of all of his careers during the last decade or so, this one is his favorite. "I like being my own boss. I have guys who work for me now. I'm a type-A person. I like dealing with people. I like success. My hobby turned into another career."

Any thoughts of calling it quits? "Are you kidding? I'm just starting. My father lived to be 95, and my mother until 102. My body is strong, and I can put in a full day's work without exhausting me."